


bruises and bliss

by seimaisin



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Comfort Sex, F/M, Minor Injuries, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 21:46:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8550292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seimaisin/pseuds/seimaisin
Summary: Percy and Vex and comfort sex, after the death of Thordak.





	

When it’s all over, they stumble back into Scanlan’s mansion, leaving the remnants of Emon and everyone else behind at least for the night. They’re all too exhausted to celebrate; this has been too much, too long, and at least to Percy, the end doesn’t seem real yet. Maybe tomorrow, when he wakes up and there is no red dragon looming over the city - maybe then, he’ll believe they’ve defeated the Chroma Conclave.

He doesn’t notice anything outside of himself until it’s just he and Vex in the upstairs hallway; she hisses and lays a hand on her abdomen, and suddenly he remembers. She took a sickening blow to the middle, sometime in the middle of the fight, from a wyvern who got too close to their perch. It didn’t seem like much, in the middle of everything else - when she hit the ground, he shot the thing’s head off, and she took a healing potion and kept going. But from her grimace now, she’s still feeling it. “You okay?” he asks.

Vex chuckles a bit. “Just bruised, that’s all. Nothing to be worried about.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s nothing we need to bother Pike for, that’s for sure. But,” she says, looking sideways at him, “if you wanted to check it out to be sure …”

Percy would have gotten the implication even if she wasn’t blushing furiously. They haven’t exactly had much time alone together lately. Just enough time to say what they needed to say to each other, and for a couple of kisses that left Percy desperately wanting. But their refrain has been “after it’s over” - like a mantra, a promise to each other that they’d do their best to survive whatever the dragons threw at them. And now, they have. Against all odds, they’re both standing here, smiling and blushing like a pair of teenagers. Suddenly, he laughs, and gestures towards the door to his room. “Let’s have a look. I wouldn’t want an injury to fester, after all.”

“You’re so kind.” She walks past him; he’s pretty sure the way she brushes against him is deliberate.

Inside, she sits on the foot of his bed and pulls off her boots. Percy sheds his coat and boots, and deposits his gun belt on the dresser, before kneeling down in front of her. “Let’s see,” he murmurs, “shall we?”

Still blushing a bit, Vex pulls her shirt up to expose her belly. And yes, there’s a large bruise there, just starting to turn an ugly shade of green. “Ouch,” he says, wincing in sympathy. 

“If this is the worst we got,” she says, “then I think it’s a miracle.”

“I’m pretty sure Pike mended a couple of broken bones for Grog, but still, the point stands.” Slowly, tentatively, Percy leans forward and places a soft kiss on her abdomen, in the middle of the bruise. He feels her muscles flutter under his lips. When he looks up at her, just for a moment, she’s wearing the loveliest expression, a mix of awe and affection and something much deeper that makes him wind his arms around her waist and lean his head against an unblemished part of her stomach. “Vex,” he murmurs, turning his cheek to her skin.

Her arms come up to surround him, one hand settling in his hair and holding him close. They stay like that for a long moment. “We did it,” she whispers. “We lived.”

“Mostly.”

“Shhh. We ended up alive. That’s all that matters.”

“Indeed.” Percy lets go of her and sits back on his heels. “How much would that hurt,” he asks, gesturing to her bruising, “if … well, if,” he finishes lamely, feeling the flush in his cheeks.

Vex laughs. “Let me tell you a secret, Percival.” She leans forward, until her face is inches from his. “I rather like a bit of pain with my pleasure.”

“Good to know,” he murmurs, touching her cheek. And then it only takes the barest of movements to close the gap between them and kiss her. 

Percy isn’t sure how long it will take to get used to this, the fact that he’s allowed to kiss Vex like this. He remembers the first time he really, consciously considered it, on a random, otherwise unremarkable day back at Greyskull Keep. She’d been laughing - he’s not even sure what she was laughing at, or what the conversation was about - and he remembers looking at her wide-open face, crinkled eyes and dazzling smile, and the thought just popping into his head. _I’d like to kiss you now._ It took him by surprise, back then. Sure, Vex was an attractive woman, but he thought of her in the same way he thought of Keyleth and Pike, who are also attractive women. Now, as he climbs up onto the bed, following her as she crawls backwards to the pillows, he’s tempted to laugh at his naive younger self. Because honestly, it’s always been Vex for him. It just took him a long time to realize it.

When he stretches out next to her, he takes a moment to look at her face, smoothing a stray lock of hair back from her forehead. “I think I like having you in my bed.”

“All you’ve ever had to do was ask, darling.” Vex grins, but there’s a measure of truth on her face that makes him feel warm. There’s also a bit of regret - how much time did they lose, thanks to their insecurities, their respective baggage?

But then again, with the biggest threats to their mortality dead, perhaps they have all the time in the world ahead of them. It’s possible, but at this moment, Percy doesn’t intend to waste any more time.

Their legs tangle together, and he draws her close for another kiss. This one is slow, languid, with lips and tongues and obscene wet noises mixed with low, needy sounds from both of them. Vex pulls his shirt up high enough that she can slip her hands underneath; her touch is hot on his skin, and he moans into her mouth, desperate for more. She pulls back from the kiss - he takes the opportunity to kiss his way down her neck, which makes her giggle breathlessly. “Percy. Clothes. We have too many.” 

He’s reluctant to let her go, to stop tasting her skin, but he does see her point. And he’s rewarded when he stops; she immediately sits up and pulls her shirt over her head, and begins wriggling out of her trousers. When she notices him staring, she shoves him lightly. “Seriously. Off with everything. Now.”

They’ve seen each other naked before - their travels don’t always allow for modesty - but this is the first time he’s been able to simply look. And gods, the wait was worth it. Her body is a gorgeous map of scars and bruises, of curves and planes and lines that look to him like a celebration of everything she’s been through, everything she’s accomplished. He wants to kiss every mark, to give each moment of pain or struggle its due appreciation. He starts with a small bruise just below her ribcage, obviously another mark of the day’s fight. When his lips brush over the dark bit of skin, Vex sighs and lays back onto the pillow. She says his name on an exhale, almost like a prayer - a reverence he doesn’t deserve, but will do his damndest to earn, he pledges silently.

He catalogs old white scars and angry red scratches from wyvern claws, callouses and bruises and patches of smooth, soft skin that survives underneath her armor. He kisses every one of them, lingering on the ones he can remember. Here is K’Vaarn, there is that bandit from Stillben, and on her stomach is the bruise from today’s wyvern; he rubs his unshaven cheek lightly against the darkened skin, remembering the clutch in his own belly when she went down. She got back up - that’s all that matters today. That’s all either of them can ask from the other. 

Finally, Vex tugs on his hair. “Percy. Come here.” He pulls himself up to meet her lips again, for just a moment before he finds himself pushed onto his back. “My turn,” she announces.

And so it is. He has plenty of his own scars, and she begins to pay attention to them. And he’s left to wonder if his attentions made her this crazy. The soft brush of her lips on his skin, the touch of her tongue to the long line of a knife wound, the way she presses her face into one of the still-red reminders of Ripley’s bullets. Every touch sends an electric pulse straight to his cock, especially as she works her way down his abdomen. The farther she goes, the shallower his breath becomes. “Vex,” he says, his voice a warning. “Vex, please.”

She smiles against his skin. “What do you want, darling?” she asks, her fingers trailing down far enough to tease the dark curls between his legs.

“You. Always you.” Now his voice is the one that sounds like a prayer, and perhaps it is - if the gods have done him any favors, it has been to bring Vex into his life. And if he is ever to give the gods their due again, it will be through her, through making sure she is safe and happy and loved as much as a broken man such as him is able. He reaches down to her, and she lets herself be drawn into his arms, allows him to kiss her from her neck to her jaw, and finally to her lips, so they can taste each other once again.

Her leg slips between his, pressing against his cock and making him groan. Really, the only thing he can do is return the favor - his leg finds its way between hers and oh, the hot, slick slide there makes this all very real. She’s wet, she wants him as much as he wants her, they’re here with nothing to stop them from taking each other. Percy finds himself laughing against her mouth when she grinds down on his leg, looking for precious friction. “Let me do that,” he says, trying to reposition her so he can slide a hand between them. “Let me touch you.”

Vex gives him a pleased hum, and shifts so that she’s straddling his legs, leaving her heat wide open for him, while still bending over enough to kiss him. “I’ve always wanted to see what you can do with those clever fingers,” she murmurs. When his fingers find her clit and rub slowly around it, she drops her head to his chest and groans. “Oh, fuck, just like that.”

It’s a little awkward, reaching like this, but he wouldn’t have it any other way right now; here, he can watch her face when she lifts her head again, lips slightly parted, hair pulling out of her braid and cascading around her face. He can watch her breasts sway as she bears down on his fingers, rocking her hips to help his fingers slide to just the right places. And when he lets his fingers drift lower, presses them inside of her while letting the heel of his hand grind against the sensitive nub, she arches her back and lets out the most delightful high-pitched whine. “ _Percy._ ” 

He leans up, his free hand tangled in her hair, and kisses her roughly. “Go ahead, darling,” he whispers, “fuck yourself on my fingers. I want to watch you.”

Vex’s pupils are blown wide when he draws back to look at her. “For the record,” she says, voice strangled, as her hips begin to move, drawing his fingers deeper inside of her, “you talking dirty is pretty much the hottest thing ever.”

“Good to know.” He grins up at her, and lets his hand press harder against her clit. “But I think what I’m looking at right now is even hotter.”

“I won’t - oh, _fuck_ ,” she keens, when he crooks his fingers inside of her. “Right there. Oh gods, don’t move, right there.”

Percy watches, awed, as she starts to move in earnest, trembling around his fingers in a way that makes him think her peak is very, very close. But soon, she slows down and lifts away from him. When she speaks, her voice is shaky, but she’s grinning widely. “I want …” In one motion, she flops onto her back, spreading her legs wide. “Fuck me, Percy, I want to come with you inside me.”

His body, tense and ready to explode, feels like it’s screaming in relief. “How can I say no to such an elegant invitation?” he teases, rolling over and onto his knees. 

“I am full of class. And,” she says, reaching down to wrap her hand around his cock when he kneels between her legs, “I want to be full of you.” 

He wraps a hand around hers, and together they guide his cock into her waiting heat. Percy can’t help but groan as he slides into her. “Bloody hell, Vex.”

“So good, so good,” she murmurs. When he’s fully sheathed inside her, she raises her arms to him. “Come here, I want you, come to me.”

He can only oblige, leaning forward on his elbows so he can kiss her. She wraps her legs around his waist and tilts her hips to keep him deep inside. And this - oh, gods, he’s dreamed of this, on the nights his demons gave him enough space to dream of good things. He awoken sweaty and hard, mind fresh with images of Vex wrapped around him, her flesh pressed against his. Not one of them was even half as good as the reality of it, he decides. The best parts are in the discomfort; the strain of his arm muscles as he holds himself above her, the throbbing of the bruises he hadn’t realized he sustained that day, the bite of her nails as she digs into his sides, desperate for purchase as he starts thrusting inside of her. The pleasure feels like a dream - the pain reminds him that it’s real, that they’re alive, that she’s really his.

There’s also the sounds - Vex, his love, while good at stealth, has never been the kind of woman to be silent when something she wants is on the line. Her voice is a stream of curses, mixed with his name, and pleas for more. “Harder, faster,” she chants, thrusting up to meet him. “Gods, Percy, more, you’re so good, give me more …” He can do nothing but comply with her demands, and enjoy how much louder and more raw her voice gets when he picks up the pace and changes the angle just a little bit. 

Not that he’s silent himself. The sounds he makes are incoherent to his ears, babble that might somehow tell her how deeply he feels for her, if she could only translate the language of his baser instincts. The sounds coalesce into her name when her trembles turn into the full-body shudders of release underneath him. He can’t manage anything else, just quiet murmurs of her name over and over again as he watches her break, like an ocean wave over the shoreline. And then it’s his turn to melt into her, to bury his face in her neck while he rides the tide of his own pleasure. She holds him close, still shuddering, still thrusting against him in a gentle rocking motion as he comes back down to her.

When it’s done, he rolls over onto his back and stares at the ceiling. “Holy fuck.”

“Yeah, that about sums it up.” Vex starts to giggle, and rolls onto her side to press against him. When he looks over at her face, he sees her wince, but she doesn’t stop giggling. “Ow. Yeah, that bruise really hurts.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’ve never hurt more enjoyably in my life.” She leans down and presses a gentle kiss to Percy’s mouth. “Besides,” she continues, grinning, “I think if you and I waited until we were both uninjured to do this, we’d be sexually frustrated forever.”

“Well, you’re not wrong.” He pulls her closer, until she’s laying half on top of him. “I think I’ve learned my lesson, about waiting for the perfect moment for things.”

“Me too.” Vex tucks her head into his neck. Her hair tickles his skin, but he has no desire to move. “No perfect moments,” she murmurs, tightening her arms around him, “just right now.”

“Just right now,” he repeats, smiling. It’s as good a mantra as any, Percy thinks, especially for the world they live in.


End file.
